800 Years of women in medicine

ANYONE who has read about the prejudice that Florence Nightingale had to overcome when treating the wounded in the Crimean war and heard of everyday sexism at modern-day hospitals might assume that the advent of the female doctor was a relatively recent phenomenon.

But a new exhibition being staged by the Royal College of Physicians to celebrate its 500th anniversary reveals the first women doctors in Britain to be two sisters practising in Hereford in the 12th century.

In fact it's believed that over the centuries potentially hundreds of women were working in medicine in this country and the exhibition challenges the preconceptions society - and history - have about female practitioners.

"I believe that women have been practising medicine for as long as there have been human beings," said guest curator Briony Hudson, who carried out extensive research into all aspects of the challenges and barriers female doctors have faced - and still confront today.

The exhibition, Challenging 500 Years Of Medical History: Answering The Vexed Question Of Women In Medicine, contains many archives and artefacts charting the history of women in the profession - all the way back to 1190 and the two sisters.

Related articles

"Quite by chance we came across Solicita and Matilda, whose names are only known to us because they acted as guarantors on a land deal in Hereford for their brother John and appear in a legal document written in Latin," explains Hudson.

"They call themselves 'medica', the female form of the Latin word for doctor. By doing this they are distinguishing themselves from other known titles of the time, such as 'wise woman' or 'apothecary' and this would suggest they were practising doctors."

There is nothing else known about these impressive sisters or potentially thousands of others because women rarely appear in formal or legal documentation.

Men, either in a professional capacity or as head of the household, are recorded but hardly ever women - and when they are, never in terms of any office they held.

Members of the London School of Tropical Medicine, 1911 (Image: London Metropolitan Archives)

"Women were not able because of the context of the time to formalise their profession," says Hudson, "but we have artefacts that show that in a domestic setting and in the community women were providing medical care."

Many women were involved in what was called kitchen physic - concocting medicines - at home.

"They couldn't practise in a surgery like a man so they worked in the household, in primary care, looking after children and local people," says Hudson.

"Many aristocratic houses had stills, rooms where cordials and medicines were distilled, and all the ingredients were written in books and handed down."

There are many plant extracts used that we would recognise today, such as opium for painkillers and willow bark, which remains in use as an alternative to aspirin.

Taking its title from the comments of a Victorian male medical student who lamented the reaction of some of his peers to the "vexed question" of women training to be doctors, the exhibition unearths for the first time some of the best female doctors of their day.

A letter asking the Royal College of Physicians to admit women (Image: London Metropolitan Archives)

In Elizabethan England, Alice Leevers was tried and punished on several occasions for illegally practising medicine.

Though other women were imprisoned for "impersonating" doctors, Alice was finally left in peace after the intervention of the Lord Chamberlain in 1586, raising the intriguing possibility that the Queen - a patron of the medical profession - knew of the case and might have interceded.

In 1631 Susan Lyon appeared before the then College of Physicians for selling medicines to an unlicensed Dutch physician. "What is interesting is that some women worked out of absolute necessity, as some do today, to look after their families if their husbands died or had no money," says Hudson.

Archives reveal that in the 1690s, the Archbishop of Canterbury and bishops, rather than the College of Physicians, issued licences to women to practise medicine. One recipient was Elizabeth Moore of Market Harborough, Leicestershire, who was licensed in 1690.

Patients' testimonials from the time, which were taken into account when considering a woman's abilities, describe Elizabeth as "a person of great skill and experience in the practice of physick, & very safe in her administrations, & very successful". One satisfied customer exclaimed he had used "no other physician for 25 or 26 years".

Between 1613 and 1696 the Archbishop licensed no fewer than 12 medical women, making them some of the earliest officially sanctioned female doctors.

Related articles

Looming large over the exhibition is Elizabeth Blackwell, who is feted for her medical achievements in America where she lived but was born in Bristol in 1821. "In 1849 Blackwell not only became the first woman to gain a medical degree in the USA but also the first woman on Britain's Medical Register in 1859," says Hudson. "She was an inspiration to other medical women on both sides of the Atlantic."

Among these women was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. Like Blackwell, Garrett Anderson was refused entry to numerous medical schools until discovering that the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries had no rule that prohibited women from taking their examinations and were legally compelled to accept the young woman as a student.

"She wanted to sit the harder exams at the Royal College of Physicians but they took legal advice and were told not to allow it," says Hudson. "Then, having admitted her, the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries closed the door on women."

Garrett Anderson became the only woman member of the British Medical Association and created the London School of Medicine for Women.

But no exhibition on women in medicine would be complete without Florence Nightingale.

"What we've chosen to focus on is Florence as an example of how women differed in their opinions on the idea of female doctors," says Hudson.

Some of the memorabilia on show at the exhibition (Image: London Metropolitan Archives)

"She started off opposed to women training to be doctors - believing their proper role was as nurses - but ended up on the board of governors of the London School of Medicine for Women. Throughout she was a staunch supporter of midwives - believing that they should have total oversight of all aspects of pregnancy and labour."

The college also wants modernday women doctors to contribute to the exhibition by using objects to tell their stories. "One showed her mobile phone because her life is about juggling her career with her home life," says Hudson.

Kristin Hussey, curator of the Royal College of Physicians Museum, adds: "It was important to us that this be an exhibition about the past and present. Many themes we tackle have 'vexed' women practitioners whether it be 1518 or 2018, including combining caring responsibilities with work and discriminatory pay practices.

"We hope that the exhibition can be an 'origin story' for women in medicine now - showing how their predecessors have challenged the system throughout history."

Unfair treatment of women has been well documented but Hudson was shocked at the extent of the discrimination: "I did not expect to be so angry but when I read the records and archives and realised how much of her life Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, for example, spent fighting, I get cross on their behalf. There were many more like her.

"If she hadn't expended so much energy and time fighting she could have been caring for patients. Yet still today we have heard other stories from hospital doctors who are dismissed as secretaries by patients or colleagues if they aren't in uniform or as nurses if they are. Women still have to try harder and shout louder in this profession."

This Vexed Question: 500 Years Of Women In Medicine runs at the Royal College of Physicians Museum from September 19 to January 18 2019, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Admission free. For further details, planned closure dates and exhibition events go to rcplondon.ac.uk